whether any can have been forthcoming in the present year.
The advantages of such a position can only be appreciated by those, who know the inconveniences, and dangers, with which a contrary order of things is attended. In the United States, where the Slaves, Mulattoes, and Free Blacks, constitute more than one-sixth of the whole population,[1] they are a constant source of disquiet and alarm. In a country, where civil liberty is incessantly invoked, and where every thing is done in its name, and for its perpetuation, they are a proscribed, and degraded caste; nor can they hope for any amelioration of their lot. Slavery rests upon the supposed natural inferiority of the slave to his master; to admit the manumitted slave to a participation of political rights, in common with his former lord, would destroy this basis altogether; and the Free Black is, therefore, not only exiled from the society of the Whites, but excluded most carefully from power; not by law, indeed, but by virtue of common usage; for the law, in general, does not recognize any difference of colour, or establish any distinction, except that of slave-owner and slave.[2] The consequence is, that
- ↑ By the census of 1810, the total population amounted to 7,239,903 inhabitants, of whom, 1,377,810 were blacks, either free or slaves; by that of 1820, the total population was 9,038,226, of whom 1,538,118 were slaves, and 233,557 free people of colour.
- ↑ In some states this is not the case: in South Carolina, for
